Compliments of a generous friend
My friend is a woodturner, and after taking a commission for quite a few turned pens, he soon discovered that he hates turning pens! He finished the job, of course, but he had many pen kits left over, and wasn't about to use them any time soon. He very generously donated a handful of them to me along with some of the tooling needed for the turning and assembly.
The images below are in the order I turned them. The first is a pencil turned from Black Cherry. The woodturners club I attend encourages folks to use one or two accent lines, but not three, because then you have to get the spacing perfect. That means, of course, I have to break the rule.
The second and third images are a pen turned in Marblewood. A plain design overall, but getting consistent angles in the middle section was important, and I wanted to let the wood speak for itself. I also learned that a small lip left near the tip of the pen was less comfortable when writing, so I planned to improve that in future turns.
The Black Walnut pen was an exploration of alternative shapes and symmetry. I also finished it with wood butter, which is a wax product my friend makes, and it leaves a nice satin finish compared to the CA glue. You may have noticed that some of these don't have pocket clips on them, which is sometimes necessary if the upper half of the pen won't allow room for the clip. I continued exploring shapes with the next pen, another Black Cherry turn. I'm quite fond of that one; it feels a bit like a decorative column or spindle, and has enough curvature to provide shadow and depth.
Lastly, a pen turned from an Oak tree felled at my family's camp. I made it as a gift for a family member, and designed it to have a slightly "bullet" feel, since he's a firearms and hunting enthusiast. It was finished with black stain, then sanded down to leave the stain only in the deep grain, and then finished with a homemade (not by me) wax finish.
Unlike my friend, I quite enjoy turning these, and I'm very grateful for his generosity that helped me find yet another joy!
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